Ford Motor Company. Archives. Oral History Section.

Owen W. Bombard, born in 1922 in Au Sable Forks, New York, received undergraduate and masters degrees from New York State College. While working towards a PhD at Columbia University, he trained with Allan Nevins in the Oral History Research Office. Bombard was hired by the Ford Motor Company Archives in 1950 to head an Oral History Section designed to enrich the historical record already housed in the newly formed Ford Motor Company Archives. The mission of the section, according to a 1952 Bombard speech to the American Historical Association, was "to increase the quantity and quality of historical sources - to reduce the number of 'blank spots' which have forced both management and scholars to make decisions or draw conclusions based on fragmentary documentation." At the conclusion of the project in 1957, Bombard continued to work for the Ford Motor Company, serving in various public relations departments.